The Yurok Language

9. WORD STRUCTURE
9.1 Morphology

The morphology of Yurok can best be analyzed by setting up word steins to
serve as a basis for the description of the various morphological formations.
In sonae cases the stem will have the same shape as the word itself in som.e
granonaatical form.; in others it will be an abstraction from the various gram-
matical forms of the word. The forms of most words can be analyzed by
reference to a single stem form, but in a few cases separate forms of the
stem have to be set up. These are indicated in the relevant sections.

The morphological processes^ employed in Yurok grammar comprise
Prefixation, Infixation, Inflection,* Vowel Harmony, and Internal Vocalic
Alternation.

Prefixation and infixation operate in both nominals and verbals, as well
as with some words of other classes. Infixation and, to a lesser extent,
vocalic alternation operate principally with verbals, playing a restricted
part elsewhere in the grammar. Vowel harmony operates in certain words
of both nominal and verbal classes.

The prefixes comprise the Pronominal Prefixes (11,35, 13.141.4). There
is one infix, -eg- and its variants (13.151), used generally with verbals and
also with a few nouns and adverbs and with one preverbal particle, so*
The inflectional elements are numerous and of very frequent employment,
principally with verbals.

Vowel harmony applies to certain prefixes, infixes, and inflections,
according to the vocalic and consonantal structure of the word stem. In the
prefixes and inflections to which it is applicable, vowel harmony is in gen-
eral a facultative, not an obligatory, process; where applicable to infixes

^Cf. 9.21.

^The use of the term "Process," and of other words that often have connotations of
temporal occurrence and historical priority, is made for convenience only. Certain
forms and stems are taken as basic and the structure of other forms is described by
reference to them, as this makes for the simplest method of statement. No suggestion
of changes or processes in time should be read into the use of such words.

^"Inflection" is used throughout to refer to formations postfixed to stems or involving
the final part of stems.

GRAMMAR

13

o, and a, the two close vowels,

is obligatory. The vowels affected are a, e,
i and u, playing no part in vowel harmony.

Internal vocalic alternation involves three alternating pairs,
and e/u*. (13.152).

9.2 Stem Structure

?/i-. e/i*?!/

In addition to the morphological processes just mentioned, Vocalic and Con-
sonantal Alternation, Reduplication, and Alternation of the consonants r and
1 operate in the stem structure of certain pairs of comparable words of re-
lated or similar meanings.

A number of words may be regarded as having Compound stems.

9,21 Vocalic and Consonantal Alternation

The pairs of words concerned may have dissimilar syllabic structures
and reveal no general patterns except that the vocalic alternation often takes
the form of the alternation of one or more of the vowels of the stem with a.

kelomen- to turn (trans.)
megesik mink
moyk- to die
muniponi sharp
pi*?ih mussel
pontet ashes
srekwepi't diaper
tenpewei- to rain
wencok^s woman
we*?yon girl
weyonah female (animal)
wohpey- to cross

wo-mel acorn

kaljmiaw to turn inside out^
megasik weasel
maykal to wither
munipani thistle
pj*?jk dried mussel
pjncjc dust'
srelcWahpi-t breechcloth
tonpewei- to be showery
wentok^s female (animal)
wj9yas girl

wahpayaks- to cross by a bridge
wohpec- to cross by boat
wo*?omei shelled acorn

9.22 Reduplication

A nuniber of verb stems and a few nouns have reduplicated forms, often
with an added meaning of repetition, plurality, or the like. Most words of
this group have both reduplicated and nonreduplicated forms, but there are
some that are apparently only found in the reduplicated form. Reduplication
is effected by the repetition, sometimes with alterations, of the first syl-
lable, and in some words part of the second syllable also, of the nonredupli-
cated form.

Nonreduplicated form.

Reduplicated form

Verbs

kelomen- to turn (trans.)
keiul- there is a lake
knewe^lon- to be long

kekelomen- to turn several things
ketketul- there is a series of lakes
kokonewe*?lon- to be long (of tufted
things)

'e/i*?i is a contextnally determined variant process and may be conveniently catego-
rized as vocalic alternation, despite the presence of 9.
*Cf. kalamakal, pistol (revolver).
'Cf. pan£ah, to be gray (of deer).

16 THE YUROK LANGUAGE

10. BASIC SYNTACTICAL STRUCTURES

10. 1 General

The basic syntactical structures of Yurok sentences are listed and outlined
below, in order that the examples in the later sections of the grammar
may be more easily interpreted. These outlines will be filled in by the
more detailed statements of syntactical constructions in the subsequent
sections.

10.2 Simple Sentences

10.21 Nominal + Verbal Sentences

The commonest basic sentence type in Yurok is Nominal -r Verbal. Most
complex sentences can be treated analytically as expansions of this basic
type.

Examples of such simple sentences are:

nek helomeyelc I am (was) dancing
pu-k ro*?op the deer is (was) running
ke*?! ho*>opes build a fire! ^^

10.22 Equational Sentences

Besides the Norrinal + Verbal type, sentences of the Equational type are
formed of two nomiials or nominal groups.

wok nelet that is my sister

wo'?o-t ku tmi-gomin he is the hunter

kic mewimor neciS my dog is now an old fellow

nek k^elek^ wis *?upa* well, I am his brother

10.23 Verbals and Verbal Groups

Verbals and verbal groups can occur alone, without a subject nominal,
as complete sentences,

tmo*lolc I am shooting

ko*?! nepelc I am eating something

ho*?opes build a fire I

tenpewe*?* it is raining

telogumelc nerpei my tooth aches (lit., I am in pain in my tooth)

kiti '?e*?gah they are going to have a meal

10.24 Nominals and Nominal Groups

Similarly nominals and nominal groups can occur alone as complete sen-
tences of the equational type.

k^esi twegoh and it was the coon
nek ho *?nenah it was mine
neki*? netektoh it is my log
mos nek necis it is not my dog

^^The convention is adopted throughout of marking imperative sentences in English by
a final exclamation mark.

GRAMMAR 1 7

10.25 Independent Subjects

A type of sentence is found in which a nominal or nominal group stands
as a kind of independent subject to the sentence as a whole, apart from any
specific subject of the verbal.

yo? teno*? wecege*?l she has a lot of seaweed (lit., as for her, her

seaweed is a lot)
nek k^elek^ wek new this is my name
nekah k^elek^ ho pelep we were in a fight (lit., as for us, there was

fighting)
nekah kic no'-t wi*? segonki*? as far as we are concerned, it has been

done for a long time
ke*?l k^elekw 9olcW kek^ol you have your own fishing rock (lit., as for

you, there is your fishing rock)

10.3 Complex Sentences

Complex sentences may be analyzed as belonging to the basic types listed
above, with either the nominal element or the verbal element expanded, or
both. Such expansion is achieved by means of one or more words linked as
subordinate members of an endocentric construction with the nominal or
verbal as head, by coordinate nominal or verbal groups with or without a
coiJrdinator, or by texocentric constructions acting as nominal substitutes.
Endocentric constriictions may be discontiguous.

10.31 Nominal Groups

10.311 Expanded nominal element

mewah hu*k male »^hild, son

ni^il pegak two men

wek \Li *?o'?lel this house <iit., this the house)

ku pegak mei weik^ew the man from WelkWew

ku ma-gin ku nepuy the rest of the salmon

nep no*?oh wjyi he ate two eggs

nek newok ku pegak wo'^o?! I saw the man*s house

ke*?l *?olcW skuyeni ite^yoc you have a good boat

10.312 Coordinate nominal groups

With a coordinator:

pegak '^emsi wencok^s helomeye?m men and women were dancing

Without a co6rdinator:

pegak wencokWs hu-ksph kem tene^m there were lots of men, women,
and children

10.32 Verbal Groups

10.321 Expanded verbal element

ku pegak no'?pe'?n mewii the man chased an elk

cmeya-n ku pegak no*?pe*?n mewil or ku pegak no?pe*?n mewii cmeya-n
the man chased an elk vesterdav

18 THE YUROK LANGUAGE

mecik '>o\i^ ha*?a-g there is a stone in the fire

sku*?y soninepek I feel good

nekah ki keih newohpew pek^su numi cpa* we will see each other again

soon
ko*?! nepelc *?oikumi ciweyelc I am eating something because I am hungry
nek ka'^ar wi ki yoh 1 will make it a pet
ke*?! CO nahcise*?m Icew ku *?nu*k give your name to my child!

This type of expansion is also applied to the predicative element of equa-
tional sentences.

yo*? wi§ tmenomeni *?weikei part of the land is his (lit., as for him, it
is partly his land)

10,322 Coordinate verbal groups

With a coordinator:

nekah ho helomeye'^m *?emsi ho rurowo*'?moh we were dancing and

singing^
yo*? ho galc^s "^emsi ho cwegin he laughed and talked

kenimi wo ko'^moyolc "^emsi nimi wo newo-li I neither heard it nor saw it
nek no*?penelc mewii tu*? tepo-noi ^o ro'?op I was chasing an elk but it

ran into the forest

Without a coSrdinator:

tene*?m *?o*4 wi '?o-le*?m a lot of people live here (lit., there are many

people they live here)
kit hego'?omah co*? nu*'?me4 they arrived just as we were making the

fires (lit., [we] were just making the fires then they arrived)
ni molcw ho nepelc I had nothing to eat (lit., there was nothing I ate)
ni moUw skewoksi'^m no one likes it
kohcew kic '^o co-moyi "^o neskWecolcW after six days he returned (lit.,

six days passed then he returned)

Under this heading may be included the constructions corresponding to
"indirect speech" in European languages. In Yurok reported speech, inten-
tion, and so on, in which the speaker makes a statement about himself, the
verb referring to this may either be in the second or third person, agree-
ing with the verb of saying, or in the first person, in this case correspond-
ing to a direct quotation.

nek so- kiti ten I think it will rain

haselc '?owo-k ki hegolc I think I will go tomorrow

yo*? ha'^m mos ki yegolcw he says he cannot go

yo*? k^elek^ ma ha*?s ku kepoyurelc he decided to go swimming (lit., he

decided "I will go swimming")
to'? hes *?i yese'^m ki yegok do you still intend to go? (lit., do you still

intend "I shall go"?)

10.323 Subordinate verbs or verbal groups

niki to-'^m wenegi-'^nowoi then they all looked for it (lit., then they were
all together they looked for it)

? GRAMMAR 19

nek skewok ki '?nesega*?ageyek I want to be rich

numi mep new kic *?ukye*?w we were just in time to see it capsize

10.33 Exocentric Constructions Acting as Nominal Substitute Groups

ku sega*?ageye*?m kic so*toi the rich people have gone away
lei wi *?o*le*?nioni wa'?soyowoi those who live here are poor

10,4 Word Order

Expansions of the verbal elenaent, other than preverbal particles (14), may
in general precede or follow their head word (cf. the second example in
10.321, above).

Word order nnay be used to distinguish the categories of subject and ob-
ject, as in English, and in such cases the order is Subject before Object.

ku pegak no*?pe*?n naewii the man chased an elk

niewil no*?pe*?n ku pegak an elk chased the man

nepe*?wisneg nep nepuy an otter ate a salmon

nek skewoksimek pa*?ah I want som.e water

yo*? '^ohpu'^m ku ceykeni she fed the child

ti*?now newo'^m. ku ke*?l kepsec who saw your father?

ku ke*?l kepsec ti*?now newo'^m whom did your father see?

cf. ku pegak ku newomin mewah the man who saw the boy
ku pegak ku mewah newomin the man whom the boy saw
See 13.141.6I(2)e.

Where, however, the morphological form of one or more of the words,
or their sense, makes the structure of the sentence unambiguous, this order
is not necessarily adhered to.

nekac (objective form of first person singular pronoun) newohpe'^n ku

wencok^s the woman saw me
ke'^l nekah ki ni*go*'?ni (plural verb) we will take you with us
yo*?ikoh ti*?nisow wis weskewok or ti'?nisow wis weskewok yo^ikoh

what do they want ?

In sentences of basic structure Subject + Verbal the order may be varied.

helome*?y ku pegjk or ku pegak helome'^y the man is dancing
ho-li? no-loh my basket is twisted
noTe'^w kepoy your tattooing is pretty

'I^he order Verb Subject is normal in the following subtypes of this sen-
tence type.

1. Where the verb is *?okw. See 13. 141 .1F(6). '?okWs, there is, or
«^o?okw(s), mokw(s), there is not.

okWg 9ukepew her grandchild was there
ni mokw no*?o'?4 I have no house
ni mo^okw rnec there is no fire here

20 THE YUROK LANGUAGE

2. Where the third person attributive form of intransitive verbs (including
adjectives) is used predicativeiy in place of the indicative. See 13.141.61(1)

ploksin ne'^yoc my boat is wide

nimi skuyeni wi *?o*i that man is no good

Pronominal subjects, on the other hand, generally precede the verbal.

yo*? neskWecolcW he is coming back
ke*?! ho teget you were crying
yo'^ikoh megeloi they are coming too

But sentences of the following type are also found:

nimi sloyiketoy ke*?l you have not swept it

kus no*?ol ki kem nu nu-*?m yo'^lkoh when are they coming back?

The indefinite pronoun ko*?l, sontiething, someone, precedes the verb
of which it is the object.

nek ko*?i nepek I am eating something

THE YUROK LANGUAGE

GRAMMAR, TEXTS, LEXICON

BY
R. H. ROBINS

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS IN LINGUISTICS

Volume 15

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

BERKELEY AND LOS ANGELES

1958